In May, Mayor Sam Adams took away oversight of the Portland Police Bureau
from Saltzman, leaving the city's most experienced commissioner with
just one major bureau assignment. Contrast that with Commissioners Randy
Leonard, who has three bureaus, and Nick Fish with two.

More
than five months later, Adams and Saltzman have hardly spoken. Saltzman,
who still believes Adams acted vindictively, hasn't asked the mayor for
more responsibility. Adams, meanwhile, thinks the workload is just fine
and said he isn't considering a bigger role for Saltzman.

The
upshot: Saltzman is finding side projects to occupy his time and said he
wouldn't rule out a run for mayor, a notion he completely dismissed
five years ago.

"It's not necessarily driven by Sam. I think
it's driven more by where I see myself and my experience here at City
Hall, the issues I work on," Saltzman said in an interview last week. "I
wouldn't rule out running for mayor. It's not necessarily a 2012
issue."

Saltzman is the first of Adams' potential rivals to tip his
hand for the 2012 race. He emphasized, however, that he's focused on his
fourth City Council term, which begins in January. He recently rehired
Aisling Coghlan, his former chief of staff, to work part time helping
him shape his agenda. Coghlan is married to political strategist Mark
Wiener, who has advised both Saltzman and Adams.

Saltzman's main
management responsibility is the Bureau of Environmental Services, a
$300 million-a-year enterprise wrapping up Portland's most expensive
public works project ever, the Big Pipe. He also oversees the bureau in
charge of police and firefighter disability and retirements, which he
acknowledges is one of the smaller offices. And he heads the Children's
Investment Fund, a $12.5 million effort that he championed in 2002 to
pay for dozens of youth services.

For a new politician, that
might be plenty. But Saltzman, 56, is a trained environmental engineer
who served five years on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners
before being elected to the Portland City Council in 1998.

"At
one point he certainly had more bureaus," said Dean Marriott, director
of the Environmental Services Bureau. "So you know he's capable of it."

"It
seems pretty light to me," former City Auditor Jewel Lansing said of
Saltzman's workload. But Lansing, who wrote a book on Portland history
and politics, added: "I actually don't think it's that unusual for the
mayor to give somebody a light assignment, especially if they're not on
the best of terms. And one gets the impression that they're not."

Assigning
bureaus is one of the mayor's major powers. The mayor can reward
friends or punish foes, with certain bureaus or offices offering
political headaches or clout. Firefighters are known to help campaign
causes; taxpayers don't like increases in sewer or water rates.

When
former Mayor Tom Potter took office in 2005, he took all bureaus and
offices from city commissioners for six months while officials crunched
the budget. Potter later resisted suggestions that he take Adams'
beloved Bureau of Transportation to show he could flex mayoral power and
put a then-rising Adams in check.

When Adams became mayor in
2009, he tapped Saltzman to manage the Police Bureau, a responsibility
typically retained by the mayor. But Adams took control a year later,
replacing Police Chief Rosie Sizer with Mike Reese two days after Sizer
slammed Adams' proposed police budget at a surprise news conference.

Saltzman
said he stands by his statements in May, when he called Adams' actions
vindictive, and remains unhappy with how things played out. Saltzman
said he hasn't asked Adams for more responsibility -- "It's his right
and prerogative to assign bureaus or reassign bureaus" -- but would
welcome the work.

"I'm always looking for more challenges; that's part of what we do here," he said. "I feel I have additional capacity."

Adams
said he doesn't plan to review bureau assignments until after the
budget process wraps up, which typically happens in the spring.

"I'm
always looking and calibrating workloads and discussing with my
colleagues their wishes and desires of bureau assignments," Adams said.
"He hasn't mentioned (feeling underused) to me. If he would like
additional assignments, I'm sure he would raise that with me."

With
his newfound time, Saltzman said he has focused on the recent opening of
the Gateway Domestic Violence Center. He also played a role in the
summer groundbreaking of the Miracles Club, a nonprofit serving
recovering addicts, and the Bridge Meadows foster program.

"To
the extent I'm not as tied down by bureau stuff, I'll be looking at
other areas to pursue ideas," he said. "That's just kind of the way I've
been."

Leonard, however, said Saltzman should ask Adams for more work if he's unhappy.

"I
think that Dan has yet to take stock of the total situation that caused
him to lose the Police Bureau," Leonard said. "So he is focused on what
happened to him and has not yet taken stock of why it happened or taken
some responsibility."

Leonard, an ally of Adams who oversees
the fire, water and development services bureaus, said the mayor had no
choice but to take control of the police.

Leonard said he thinks Saltzman may run for mayor, specifically because of his checkered history with Adams.

"I think Dan could run," he said. "I think Dan would be more likely to run if Sam was in the race."

Saltzman
said he has never doubted whether he could handle the job but always
dreaded the social responsibilities that come with being mayor. He said
his priorities have shifted in the past two years, though, with his
daughter now in college and Adams fighting to regain public trust in the
wake of last year's sex scandal.

"That's probably when those
types of issues started occurring to me," Saltzman said. "Again, not
directed toward Sam, but recognizing at the time ... there was a
possibility the mayor was going to resign, and would I be prepared to
step up as a candidate for mayor?"

Saltzman said he wouldn't run
if someone such as Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen, Saltzman's
former chief of staff, announced his candidacy. "I would never do that,
nor would he," Saltzman said.

If Adams runs?

"I'm not
focusing on the mayoral election in 2012. I'm focusing on doing a good
job," Saltzman said. "If those contingencies occur, then I would have to
sit down and do a more honest soul searching to make sure this is
something I would want to do."

Saltzman said his decision is months away. For now, he's focused on work within City Hall.

Earlier
this week, Saltzman began shopping around a proposed ordinance to
address concerns about sex trafficking. His plan would dedicate funding
for victims, which would affect Adams' Police Bureau. Saltzman secured
Adams' support on Monday.

Saltzman said it marked just the second time the two had met one on one since May.